INTERESTS OF UNIONISTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20820, 12 March 1931, Page 11

INTERESTS OF UNIONISTS.

NEW SOUTH WALES BILL.

REVOLUTIONARY PROPOSALS.

ATTACK BY OPPOSITION. By Telegraph—Press Association—Copyright. (Received March 12. 1.5 a.m.) SYDNEY. March U. Revolutionary changes in the industrial laws of New South vWales are provided for in the new. Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act Amendment Bill. Ifc was explained to-day by the Minister of Labour, Mr. J. M. Baddeley, in the Legislative Assembly. The measure provides for the abolition of the existing Industrial Commission and the appointment of Mr. Justice Piddington as sole commissioner. Other provisions are for preference to financial unionists, the abolition of loyalist unions, the determination of the basic wage on a basis of man and wife, the restoration of the rights of Government employees similar to those existing outside the civil service, the prohibition of piece-work or the bonus system, and the right of domestic servants if organised in a .union to obtain an award covering wages and conditions. '

Mr. T. R. Bavin, Leader of the Opposition, in opening an attack on the bill, stated that eveiy clause in ifc reeked with injustice, tyranny and stupidity. If the vicious and utterly revolutionary provisions of the bill were to be accepted no new industry would be started and every industry which could possibly do so would leave the State.

The bill would open the doors to wholesale blackmail and transfer the control of industry from the employers to the secretaries of the unions, said Mr. Bavin. He accused the Premier, Mr. Lang, of having allowed the secretaries of the unions to draft the bill on condition that they did not protest against the tax of one shilling in the pound. Continuing his attack Mr. Bavin said the bill was not so much a measure to settle industrial disputes as one to create a dispute with the Upper House, which was bound to eliminate the more objectionable clauses. That would enable the Premier to make political capital out of its action. The bill was read a second time.